The freeze is now over.

Monday 12th January.

Banbury 1/2 mile and 1 lock.

The weekend saw the tale of two weathers. Saturday it was still very cold, with the canal still frozen solid. But Sunday the thaw began with the temperature up to 8C during the afternoon. Even the back cabin stove was in overdrive as far as the heat was concerned, it resulted in me leaving it to go out before bedtime, otherwise we were going to have a very hot night between the sheets (get your minds out of the gutter, you know what I mean). For us the weekend was a quiet one, but there was plenty of activity outside as the car parks ebbed and flowed with cars and people, who were no doubt hoping for some bargains in the sales.

We awoke this morning to rain tapping on the boat roof. The weather had gone from the sublime to the ridiculous within the space of 48 hours. It was as if the freeze had never happened, because on opening the back cabin doors, the canal was no longer frozen. This was good news because we could now move off of the 48 hour moorings and down on to the 14 day moorings. So with Paddy walked, breakfast done and the fires stoked we left our mooring, with the rain holding off. I walked ahead to the lift bridge and opened it ready for Hadar to pass through. We gave a wave to John on NB Epiphany; they have been moored at Tooley’s Boatyard since having the boats hull blacked. No doubt we will see them again, whilst heading for Thrupp. As I was working Banbury Lock (5’10”), I was approached by a boater asking for coal. He was moored below the lock, so having emptied the toilet cassette at the sanitary station; we pulled in ahead of him, unloaded and delivered 10 bags of Taybrite to his boat. We moored up just past Albion Bridge on the 14 day moorings.

After a bite of lunch we walked into town, even though it was now raining again, to see if our new glasses were ready at Specsavers. They had told us that they would take a week, but we thought there was no harm in asking if they were ready, just as well we took the chance because they were ready for us to collect. So Keith and I now have new glasses and a brand new outlook on life. Next time we will not leave it 4 years before getting our eyes tested.
We will probably make a move tomorrow after a food shop, although we will wait and see what the weather is like first.